There is a general need for a device which provides temporary protection of various articles, particularly articles which have a generally extended or longitudinal shape. The need for temporary protection typically occurs when these articles have to be transported, such as from a production site to either a secondary site or the end user of the article. Although there are many such articles which require temporary protection, the invention as described herein is used for the protection of automobile exhaust systems. Of course, it will be readily recognized that the invention described herein may be easily adapted and used for protecting many different types of articles.
The components of an exhaust system typically include several longitudinal tubes and exhaust parts which are linked together through one or more flexible unit, such as heat-resistant flexible tubes or hoses. While such exhaust systems are relatively common, problems often occur when the exhaust system is completely assembled as a "sub-assembly" at a first manufacturing site and then transported to a second manufacturing site, where the exhaust system is installed into a vehicle. Such sub-assemblies are becoming more common as automobile manufacturers purchase completed automobile sub-systems (such as exhaust systems, dashboards, interiors, etc.) from different manufacturing sources and then assemble the sub-systems into the final vehicle.
During transportation of an exhaust system sub-assembly, the various components must be securely held in their final relative positions, otherwise the flexible connections between the components can become loose or be damaged. One possible method for achieving this requirement is to temporarily assemble the components onto a rigid holding device. However, this method is a time-consuming and thus expensive process.
Another option is to simply reinforce the flexible component and its connection to the adjacent exhaust pipes in some manner. Again, however, any reinforcing method should be as simple and cost effective as possible. Due to the wide variety of exhaust systems which are transported and the relatively limited number of identical sub-systems to be transported, a mass produced reinforcement part, such as a rigid molded cover, would not be suitable, as the tooling costs for providing multiple shapes of molded covers would typically be too expensive. Another possibility would be to use heat-shrinkable articles, as e.g. described for electrical splices in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,297,819; 3,717,717; and 4,390,745. Such heat-shrinkable articles are easily adapted to different shapes and configurations. In their original form, however, heat-shrinkable articles cannot be wrapped around the object to be protected. Additionally, the heat-shrinkable article would have to be cut off the protected object, which is a time consuming process that may damage the protected object. Further, the protective tubes would need to be discarded after a single use, which is not cost effective.
What is needed, therefore, is a process and article for the temporary protection of extended articles which is cost effective, easily adaptable to different shapes and configurations, and which may be assembled and disassembled from the protected article as quickly as possible. It is also desirable if the protective article may be reused multiple times.